When I first laid eyes upon this Cadillac Convertible, I assumed that the odometer had rolled over once and that the car had actually covered 100,060 miles. Upon closer inspection though I believe that the mileage could be legit. The seller doesn’t give any explanation as to why this beauty wasn’t enjoyed more, but the photos do a lot of talking. The car is located in Woodbury, New Jersey and the auction ends shortly. Take a look at the listed here on eBay and let us know what you think.
The interior is stunning! These cars came with a ton of standard luxury features such as power windows, power locks, and automatic climate control. This one also has some very fancy leather seats. They both recline and have power controls. Take a look at the option list further down to see what that set the buyer back.
And here’s the odometer. Sixty miles exactly. Normally, we wouldn’t believe claims like this without some paperwork, but just look at the wood grain and vinyl surfaces. Everything still looks like new! Even an excellent detail job couldn’t erase the wear caused by driving a car. It’s as if someone was trying to preserve this one.
Not only was 1976 the United States Bicentennial, but it was also the end of the line for the big Eldorado Convertible. So, to commemorate the occasion, Cadillac released 200 special edition cars in a triple white color combo. Could that be the reason this one wasn’t driven? Perhaps someone thought it would be a collector’s item someday?
The window sticker is still in place. Just checkout that option list! I’m not sure if all the final convertibles came with all these options, but there are some interesting ones on there. The reclining seat option was pricey and the automatic headlights (Twilight Sentinel) would be nice to have. Heck, there are few new cars that have auto dimming brights (Guide-Matic) today!
This thing looks like it’s ready to cruise! It will most likely be rolled into a climate controlled facility and immediately covered for safe keeping though. I suppose that’s fine though because it would be nice if future generations could use this car as a reference when restoring their own Eldorado Convertibles. There were a lot of these built, but this has got to be one of the nicest, if not the best example in existence!
Jesse, my VW Golf has automatic high beams! Everybody thought that this was the last American convertible back in 1976, so that explains at least 5 years of storage (until the fwd LeBaron brought ragtops back). Seeing a brand new 1976 car brings me joy, but not sure it will get record bids. It could go back in a museum in a malaise era portrayal :). I always liked the excess of Eldorados of that generation!
Bidding at 65k$, happy to be wrong!
Hagerty #1 condition value is $68,900.
El-dora-doo, even a rabid dyed in the wool, blue oval guy like me had a soft spot for these majestic boulevard cruisers. What’s not to like, beautiful lines, ever conceivable option known to man, and it’s a Caddy. This was probably one of the sharpest cars available at that time. Nice ride.
Awesome car, but 60 miles? Looking at the top side it looks the part, looking at the underside photos (on ebay ad) leaves me with questions. The bottom side just doesn’t look like a new car to me. It should be spotless with no missing paint but it isn’t. These still had a mechanical (cable driven) speedometer. It was so easy to disconnect and drive away, never recording any mileage. I saw that happen many times, especially from people who wanted to drive a car at least a little, that was perceived as a future collectible. I think it is a very low mileage well preserved car, but I have doubt about the 60 mile claim.
I gotta agree, some. How do the valve covers wind up looking like that in 60 miles? I’m thinking Boss Hogg wouldn’t care, he will buy it anyway…
…and those window stickers have been up and down how many times in 60 miles?
Maybe this was mostly a parade car.
This car is 6 years older than me so if someone could answer this question. On the window sticker it says:
“Recliner Manual Driver 50/50 seat”
“Recliner Power Passenger 50/50”
Did you actually have to pay for a seat that reclined in 1976? Also, I’ve seen plenty of cars that have a power driver’s seat and a manual passenger seat but not the other way around. Was that normal?
What you paid extra for was the power assist. My ’76 Renault 5 had reclining seats — comfortable ones, BTW — but they were manually operated. And some high(er) end cars offered power assists ONLY for the driver’s seat.
The standard feature was a power bench seat. The 50/50 seat was the same size as the bench seat, but was two independent powered seats for the driver and passenger split in the center.
Man, you know those seats are comfortable!
A number of people bought 1976 Cadillac Eldorado convertibles and put them away sure they would be a great investment.. Many paid up to $5000 over list because they were to be the last convertibles and then sued and then sued GM when convertible production resumed in 1982 with Pontiac. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1984/07/19/last-convertible-buyers-sue-gm-charging-fraudulent-advertising/64b95912-f4da-43ea-bfb6-1118601d4ce4/
There are several of these convertibles for sale now for up to $99,000. Adjusted for inflation, $15,000 in 1976 would be worth $65,000 now. $15,000 invested in real estate or stocks in 1976 would be worth considerably more than $100,00 today.
Yeah , But you can’t drive a house , I had one of these a few years ago , great fun , I was once turned away from a Manhattan Parking garage because they said it was too big !
It was the “Bicentennial Special” that there were only 200 made. In total, there were a total of 14,000 Eldorado Convertibles made in 1976.
You are correct.They were the last 200 convertibles produced. Hagerty has a seperate value for that model. #1 condition is $68,900.
I looked at the ebay pics and dont see anything wrong with the bottom side of this thing. Asphalt and solvent based rust protections were still the norm in 1976. Looks like ziebart to me. I remember my uncle bought one to put away, not to be driven, as an investment. Its possible and i like it.
When I looked at the ebay pics again, I noticed the seller removed some of the underside photos. The only remaining underside photo, does not show the trans pan missing most of the paint or the front underside section. Interesting.
I CALL BULL$HIT
Take a close look at the passenger side door striker, it is well worn.
No way its 60 miles!
Someone is being victimized.
LOOK AT THIS and tell me that’s sixty miles!
It could be sixty miles. The door hinges on this particular model were very much under-engineered. They started sagging on these cars before they were out of the factory. It’s not beyond the realm of possibility that the hinges have been adjusted already since then, even on a low mile car like this.
I heard that some gentleman in Texas bought 12 of these when cadillac anounced that it would not be repeated. This was supposed to be the last of the huge luxury convertibles. Maybe this is one of the 12 from Texas.
Since I am not uber-wealthy, with more money than brains, I could not see myself buying this even if it does have only 60 miles and then NEVER driving it. Bottom line, It’s a car, not a Faberge egg. That to me is sort of like the story, I believe it was here, about the early model corvette in the hardware store within a room with a small window. Be like Jay Leno, buy ’em, love ’em, but drive ’em. Even if you only put 1k miles a year on it, after a decade you would still have one of the best low mileage caddy’s of its kind.
“Hey everybody, come look at this $15,000 car I bought for seventy grand! No, we can’t go for a ride.”
Looks like the one that sat in the showroom of Action Olds Cadillac in Portsmouth, Va. until the dealership closed two or three years ago. It had not been driven either.
A large number of these were bought new and put away. Out of the last 200 white editions just like this car, I know where there are 7 of them still in storage since new with under 50 miles. I would be willing to bet this is the real deal. As for that door striker with the paint chipped off, that would have happened within the first few shuts of the door. Remember, the build quality and paint quality were not perfection on cars of this era.
Only $65k? Put me down for a couple.
You want to know what I think? ( voice way in the back, “No”) Ok, I’ll tell you. Being kind of a special car, I bet someone disconnected the speedo, and drove this car around. Not a lot, mind you, it is pretty clean, Joey could be right.( although, we could do without the swearing) Underside looks a little flaky, and paint missing around oil cap, all of which, could have been from parades, idling a lot, or caught in the rain. It is, without a doubt, a low mileage car. Should be in a museum for future generations to gaze at. Probably, one of the nicest modern cars ever.
That driver seat has more than 60 miles on it, unless the owner weighed in at 400lbs.
I’d avoid this puppy…
Here we go again with all the mileage fraud peanut gallery…….It’s real people, get a life…….The ONLY thing this car is missing is the $1,200 Fuel Injected option, which increased power to 200-210 depending on source. The FI also brought mpg’s to nearly 20 on the highway. I have a FI 76′ Eldorado Convertible in my collection, but not a Bi Centennial model (mine is white over red with a white top) and I have 59k miles……These are awesome cars to drive, totally last of an era
I have no idea whether it really has only 60 miles on it. (And I tend to avoid making public accusations of fraud based on my interpretation of low-res pictures on an Ebay ad. Just sayin’) No reason it couldn’t be true, though, since a LOT of these were put away back in the day. Remember also that, no matter how carefully you store an old car, it will suffer some deterioration just from the passage of time.It should have the original non-date-coded tires; that would be easy to check.
If it was driven around with the speedo disconnected, as some have posted, it must have been driven on hermetically-sealed roads, too, since the exhaust system doesn’t even have surface rust on it.
Some body is gonna get taken for a ride look at the fillers and how they fit not factory my friend collects these land yachts the sticker on the rad support is worn the mldg doesn’t match up like factory and the milage numbers arnt straight when we used to buy them in new York the kids would come around with a box and skate bord and turn the milage when your a dealer u learn these things speedo has been tempered with they never used that kind of undercoating eather to my acct any way a sucker born every day look at the seat covers where the seats fold down never seen them like that to messy
No one noticed that the trip odometer and the mileage odometer are not in sinc 2.1 vs 60
trip reset at 57.9..
From teaching vocational auto shop, back in the late 60’s, my experience is that it is impossible to get the odometer numbers to all line up correctly after a ‘roll back’. I can confirm that some 50 years ago this was an accepted practice at car dealerships. You can form your own conclusion!
How many times could a door be opened and closed on a car sitting on a show room floor before it is ever sold ?. Now forty years later, How many times has these doors been opened and closed by people just looking at a beautiful car ?
I am with Marty, how many GM car doors never shut correctly. It’s the reason they used so many shims to force fit their vehicles.
Well 60 miles or not, it sold for $65,650. 37 bids.
Believe it or not there may be more of these out there with even less miles. A lot of these were bought as investments at the time, as they were billed as the last of GM’s big convertibles. People thought they would be valuable in the future. But there are just a heck of a lot of them out there. Growing up in the city in the 70’s my neighbor across the street had one of these red with white leather. She drove it into the ground, the city wasn’t kind to it. It’s nice to see a survivor and how nice they looked as new.
Which city, Joe?
Sweet ride! My guess is Paradise City.
@JimmyinTexas…Probably that car has been towed from Joes’ ‘whatever city’… The lady drove it ‘into the ground’ and all those ‘abandoned car’ tickets now too; probably over forty years worth !! Best look for one in your area !! Best to you in your search.
LOL, I was just wondering what city he grew up in that took such a toll on vehicles… Not really in the market for a convertible, as much as I would like to have one. I’m married to Ms. Melonoma, so convertibles are pretty much out of the equation…